Watch out David Attenborough - Ryan Reynolds hosting TV wildlife documentary like no other

IT’S A wildlife documentary scene that we all recognise in an instant – footage of lions, elephants and giraffes, the mighty heroes of the natural world, striding majestically across the African savannah, accompanied by stirring music. And this time it’s Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds providing the narrative to the rousing images of the regal creatures… until seconds later, he abruptly changes tone and dismisses the big beasts as “blowhards”.

“They don’t need my help,” adds the Canadian-American actor, who is best known for playing the sardonic superhero Deadpool in the film of the same name. “I’m here for nature’s bench-warmers. I’m talking grade-A freaks with their freaking bizarre, weird freakshow lives. Get ready for the underdogs.”

And that is the exact name of the quirky new wildlife show coming to our screens on National Geographic on Wednesday. Wise-cracking Reynolds makes the perfect guide to this ragtag cast of insects, amphibians, small primates seabirds and fish.

“These guys are the grossest, weirdest, the most unlikely stars in the great movie of life. Wherever there is blatant mischief, wherever there is abject cowardice, wherever there is unbearable sexual tension – that’s where you’ll find the underdogs,” he says. “Welcome to the world of pathetic animals with superpowers. Say hello to the super-zeroes. I’m Ryan Reynolds, and I endorse these weirdos.”

Ryan, who has four young children with his wife Blake Lively, says he is delighted to be involved with Underdogs. “It was a dream come true – mostly because I can finally watch a project of mine with my children. Technically, they saw Deadpool & Wolverine, but I don’t think they absorbed much while covering their eyes and ears and screaming for two hours.

“We’re so proud to elevate the unsung heroes of the natural world to the top of the entertainment food chain.”

The narrator, who is also an executive producer on the project, channels Deadpool in his snarky narration. At one point, reflecting on the miraculous power of the rare amphibian, the axolotl, to regenerate limbs lost to predators, Ryan wonders what else it could regrow: “How about my dignity? Or the fragile global economy? No?”

Frankly, it’s about time. The superheroes of the animal kingdom have already had far too much flattering coverage from natural history filmmakers.

The producers of Underdogs reckon that documentary-makers focus on just 0000.1% of the 10 million animal species on the planet – and almost all of them are preening, over-exposed superstars. But that is all changing now. It’s time for the understudies to take centre-stage.

Thanks to their secret talents, strange hygiene routines, unorthodox courtship rituals and dubious parenting practices, these misfits are not normally the centre of attention. But this series gives them their 15 minutes of fame.

Underdogs features an entire menagerie full of left-field, “fact-is-stranger-than-fiction” animals, such as manatees that use flatulence to control their buoyancy and koalas that feed their babies their droppings.

The series also showcases sequences of animal behaviour that have never been filmed before. For example, in one scene, a huge cavern in New Zealand mysteriously glows more brightly than the Las Vegas Strip.

Director Doug Parker takes up the story. “The team and I travelled for kilometres through narrow tunnels in waist-deep water, carrying all the equipment.

“And then, when we walked into a large cavern at the end, it was just this astonishing light show. You’ve got millions of glow worms all over the ceiling of the cave. And then, when you look closer, you can see that they’re these tiny little fungus gnats in a slime hammock with mucus threads dangling underneath.

“They are using bioluminescence from their rear end to attract their unsuspecting prey – flies – which they then eat from the inside.” Charming.

While we’re on the subject of worms, the velvet worm also has some quite remarkable tricks up its sleeve. Virtually blind, it is stalked by a ravenous wolf spider.

But, just as it seems as if its goose (worm?) is cooked, it comes up with a stunt Spider-Man would be proud of. The velvet worm repels its predator by squirting strands of a very adhesive goo that ties the wolf spider up in knots.

Ryan comments, “Oh. My. Lord. Velvet worm slime would be a kindergarten teacher’s worst nightmare. It’s as sticky as superglue, it hardens in seconds and they can shoot it up to a foot. We’ll not be using it for craft time today!”

The series also includes the activities of the quite frankly bonkers honey badger. For example, as he headbutts his way into a beehive in Africa to snaffle its honey, he seems completely oblivious as he receives no fewer than 106 stings on the snout for his pains.

It would appear that this indestructible creature is not afraid of anything. To prove the point, 25% of his prey consists of venomous snakes. On what planet is that a good idea?

This critter also brazenly feeds on ostrich eggs, even though one kick from an adult bird can kill a lion. As Ryan puts it: “He didn’t get that memo.”

In one extraordinary scene, a honey badger is pictured being attacked by a pack of African hunting dogs, a species so fatally efficient that they catch and kill 80% of the animals they chase.

Amazingly, thanks to the honey badger’s incredibly thick and baggy skin, the canines can’t get their teeth into him and he escapes – the underdog who bests the top dogs. Another creature who beats the odds is the pistol shrimp. He and his mate lead a quiet life on the seabed feasting on fish faeces – as you do. He resides in the home he has dug underneath a sea anemone, whose poisonous stingers act like an electric fence.

When his dwelling is besieged by the much larger and more aggressive fire worm, the pistol shrimp hatches a cunning plan. He snaps his claws together so fast they smash the sound barrier. This generates a tiny bubble that for a split-second is as hot as the surface of the sun.

The pistol shrimp then fires the bubble from his claw at the intruder at a velocity so fast, it is invisible to the human eye – a 15 millionth of a second, to be precise. The burning-hot bubble sends shockwaves through the fire worm and instantly kills him.

Ryan describes these animals as: “Mr and Mrs Pistol Shrimp, humble, hard-working and with an ‘ask questions later’ approach to home security.”

Some underdogs will stoop to any level in their fight for survival. Take the innocent-sounding, but deeply sinister, jewel wasp. The narrator describes this creature as, “a freeloader with a mind-blowing superpower. Let’s just say, she doesn’t use her powers for good.”

The female wasp sneaks up on a cockroach and stings him in a very specific spot on his head. This floods the cockroach’s brain with dopamine and turns him into a zombie.

You might want to look away during the next sequence where the wasp first gnaws off one of the cockroach’s antennae and then uses it as a grotesque kind of straw to sample his bodily fluids.

As if that weren’t bad enough already, she then drags off her helpless prey, buries him alive and leaves her egg to burrow into the cockroach’s body.

The larva transforms into an adult wasp by eating her way out of the cockroach. The jewel wasp would not look out of place in a horror movie.

Another oddball is the much-maligned hyena. Showrunner Dan Rees says that on the shoot, at the Ngorongoro Crater, Kenya, he was won over by the male hyena’s lovable tenacity. “We saw that the only way the males can win the heart of a female is by showing total devotion. She’ll mate with him if he’s keen enough, basically.

“So the males will follow the females for literally weeks on end. We got these shots where the female would walk through, and then the male would walk through doggedly following after her.

“In human society, that sort of behaviour would be likely to land you in jail! We just thought, ‘This is hilarious and very relatable as well.’”

This is one of many instances in Underdogs where we can see the link between ourselves and the animals on screen. Polly Billam, a writer and series producer on the show, says: “The stories are funny, but laughter doesn’t land unless you have an emotional connection with the animal. Everybody can relate to being an underdog.

“So we hope that by inspiring people and creating an emotional connection with the animals, we can make people care a bit more and reignite interest in the natural world.”

Dan chips in: “We’re not trying to make out that these animals are these wonderful, pure, faultless heroes. They’re flawed and weird and kooky, just like humans.”

The documentary-makers hope that Underdogs will chime with a broad spectrum of viewers. According to Doug: “The stories that we focused on are not your standard go-tos. If you look past the obvious and see what you might not have been expecting, there’s a whole other world of stories to tell. I hope it’s laugh-out-loud funny and will bring a wider audience to natural history.”

So are lions, elephants and giraffes over now? “Absolutely,” Dan laughs. “They’re history!”

• Underdogs premieres on Nat Geo Wild at 9pm next Wednesday and streams from Monday on Disney+